Duke Ellington | Biography & History | AllMusic google+ Artist Biography by William Ruhlmann Duke Ellington was the most important composer in the history of jazz as well as being a bandleader who held his large group together continuously for almost 50 years. The two aspects of his career were related; Ellington used his band as a musical laboratory for his new compositions and shaped his writing specifically to showcase the talents of his bandmembers, many of whom remained with him for long periods. Ellington also wrote film scores and stage musicals, and several of his instrumental works were adapted into songs that became standards. In addition to touring year in and year out, he recorded extensively, resulting in a gigantic body of work that was still being assessed a quarter century after his death. Ellington was the son of a White House butler, James Edward Ellington, and thus grew up in comfortable surroundings. He began piano lessons at age seven and was writing music by his teens. He dropped out of high school in his junior year in 1917 to pursue a career in music.

At first, he booked and performed in bands in the Washington, D.C., area, but in September 1923 the Washingtonians , a five-piece group of which he was a member, moved permanently to New York, where they gained a residency in the Times Square venue The Hollywood Club (later The Kentucky Club). They made their first recordings in November 1924, and cut tunes for different record companies under a variety of pseudonyms, so that several current major labels, notably Sony, Universal, and BMG, now have extensive holdings of their work from the period in their archives, which are reissued periodically. The group gradually increased in size and came under Ellington 's leadership. They played in what was called "jungle" style, their sly arrangements often highlighted by the muted growling sound of trumpeter James "Bubber" Miley. A good example of this is Ellington 's first signature song, "East St. Louis Toodle-oo," which the band first recorded for Vocalion Records in November 1926, and which became their first chart single in a re-recorded version for Columbia in July 1927.

The Ellington band moved uptown to The Cotton Club in Harlem on December 4, 1927. Their residency at the famed club, which lasted more than three years, made Ellington a nationally known musician due to radio broadcasts that emanated from the bandstand. In 1928, he had two two-sided hits: "Black and Tan Fantasy"/"Creole Love Call" on Victor (now BMG) and "Doin' the New Low Down"/"Diga Diga Doo" on OKeh (now Sony), released as by the Harlem Footwarmers . "The Mooche" on OKeh peaked in the charts at the start of 1929. While maintaining his job at The Cotton Club, Ellington took his band downtown to play in the Broadway musical Show Girl, featuring the music of George Gershwin , in the summer of 1929. The following summer, the band took a leave of absence to head out to California and appear in the film Check and Double Check.

From the score, "Three Little Words," with vocals by the Rhythm Boys featuring Bing Crosby , became a number one hit on Victor in November 1930; its flip side, "Ring Dem Bells," also reached the charts. The Ellington band left The Cotton Club in February 1931 to begin a tour that, in a sense, would not end until the leader's death 43 years later. At the same time, Ellington scored a Top Five hit with an instrumental version of one of his standards, "Mood Indigo" released on Victor. The recording was later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. As " the Jungle Band ," the Ellington Orchestra charted on Brunswick later in 1931 with "Rockin' in Rhythm" and with the lengthy composition "Creole Rhapsody," pressed on both sides of a 78 single, an indication that Ellington 's goals as a writer were beginning to extend beyond brief works.

(A second version of the piece was a chart entry on Victor in March 1932.) "Limehouse Blues" was a chart entry on Victor in August 1931, then in the winter of 1932, Ellington scored a Top Ten hit on Brunswick with one of his best-remembered songs, "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)," featuring the vocals of Ivie Anderson . This was still more than three years before the official birth of the swing era, and Ellington helped give the period its name. Ellington 's next major hit was another signature song for him, "Sophisticated Lady." His instrumental version became a Top Five hit in the spring of 1933, with its flip side, a treatment of "Stormy Weather," also making the Top Five. The Ellington Orchestra made another feature film, Murder at the Vanities, in the spring of 1934. Their instrumental rendition of "Cocktails for Two" from the score hit number one on Victor in May, and they hit the Top Five with both sides of the Brunswick release "Moon Glow"/"Solitude" that fall.

The band also appeared in the Mae West film Belle of the Nineties and played on the soundtrack of Many Happy Returns. Later in the fall, the band was back in the Top Ten with "Saddest Tale," and they had two Top Ten hits in 1935, "Merry-Go-Round" and "Accent on Youth." While the latter was scoring in the hit parade in September, Ellington recorded another of his extended compositions, "Reminiscing in Tempo," which took up both sides of two 78s. Even as he became more ambitious, however, he was rarely out of the hit parade, scoring another Top Ten hit, "Cotton," in the fall of 1935, and two more, "Love Is Like a Cigarette" and "Oh Babe! Maybe Someday," in 1936. The band returned to Hollywood in 1936 and recorded music for the Marx Brothers ' film A Day at the Races and for Hit Parade of 1937.

Meanwhile, they were scoring Top Ten hits with "Scattin' at the Kit-Kat" and the swing standard "Caravan," co-written by valve trombonist Juan Tizol , and Ellington was continuing to pen extended instrumental works such as "Diminuendo in Blue" and "Crescendo in Blue." "If You Were in My Place (What Would You Do?)," a vocal number featuring Ivie Anderson , was a Top Ten hit in the spring of 1938, and Ellington scored his third number one hit in April with an instrumental version of another standard, "I Let a Song Go out of My Heart." In the fall, he was back in the Top Ten with a version of the British show tune "Lambeth Walk." The Ellington band underwent several notable changes at the end of the 1930s. After several years recording more or less regularly for Brunswick, Ellington moved to Victor. In early 1939 Billy Strayhorn , a young composer, arranger, and pianist, joined the organization.

He did not usually perform with the orchestra, but he became Ellington 's composition partner to the extent that soon it was impossible to tell where Ellington 's writing left off and Strayhorn 's began. Two key personnel changes strengthened the outfit with the acquisition of bassist Jimmy Blanton in September and tenor saxophonist Ben Webster in December. Their impact on Ellington 's sound was so profound that their relatively brief tenure has been dubbed "the Blanton-Webster Band" by jazz fans. These various changes were encapsulated by the Victor release of Strayhorn 's "Take the 'A' Train," a swing era standard, in the summer of 1941. The recording was later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. That same summer, Ellington was in Los Angeles, where his stage musical, Jump for Joy, opened on July 10 and ran for 101 performances. Unfortunately, the show never went to Broadway, but among its songs was "I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good)," another standard. The U.S.

entry into World War II in December 1941 and the onset of the recording ban called by the American Federation of Musicians in August 1942 slowed the Ellington band's momentum. Unable to record and with touring curtailed, Ellington found an opportunity to return to extended composition with the first of a series of annual recitals at Carnegie Hall on January 23, 1943, at which he premiered "Black, Brown and Beige." And he returned to the movies, appearing in Cabin in the Sky and Reveille with Beverly. Meanwhile, the record labels, stymied for hits, began looking into their artists' back catalogs. Lyricist Bob Russell took Ellington 's 1940 composition "Never No Lament" and set a lyric to it, creating "Don't Get Around Much Anymore." The Ink Spots scored with a vocal version (recorded a cappella), and Ellington 's three-year-old instrumental recording was also a hit, reaching the pop Top Ten and number one on the recently instituted R&B charts.

Russell repeated his magic with another 1940 Ellington instrumental, "Concerto for Cootie" (a showcase for trumpeter Cootie Williams ), creating "Do Nothin' Till You Hear from Me." Nearly four years after it was recorded, the retitled recording hit the pop Top Ten and number one on the R&B charts for Ellington in early 1944, while newly recorded vocal cover versions also scored. Ellington 's vintage recordings became ubiquitous on the top of the R&B charts during 1943-1944; he also hit number one with "A Slip of the Lip (Can Sink a Ship)," "Sentimental Lady," and "Main Stem." With the end of the recording ban in November 1944, Ellington was able to record a song he had composed with his saxophonist, Johnny Hodges , set to a lyric by Don George and Harry James , "I'm Beginning to See the Light." The James recording went to number one in April 1945, but Ellington 's recording was also a Top Ten hit.

With the end of the war, Ellington 's period as a major commercial force on records largely came to an end, but unlike other big bandleaders, who disbanded as the swing era passed, Ellington , who predated the era, simply went on touring, augmenting his diminished road revenues with his songwriting royalties to keep his band afloat. In a musical climate in which jazz was veering away from popular music and toward bebop, and popular music was being dominated by singers, the Ellington band no longer had a place at the top of the business; but it kept working. And Ellington kept trying more extended pieces. In 1946, he teamed with lyricist John Latouche to write the music for the Broadway musical Beggar's Holiday, which opened on December 26 and ran 108 performances. And he wrote his first full-length background score for a feature film with 1950's The Asphalt Jungle. The first half of the 1950s was a difficult period for Ellington , who suffered many personnel defections.

(Some of those musicians returned later.) But the band made a major comeback at the Newport Jazz Festival on July 7, 1956, when they kicked into a version of "Dimuendo and Crescendo in Blue" that found saxophonist Paul Gonsalves taking a long, memorable solo. Ellington appeared on the cover of Time magazine, and he signed a new contract with Columbia Records, which released Ellington at Newport , the best-selling album of his career. Freed of the necessity of writing hits and spurred by the increased time available on the LP record, Ellington concentrated more on extended compositions for the rest of his career. His comeback as a live performer led to increased opportunities to tour, and in the fall of 1958 he undertook his first full-scale tour of Europe. For the rest of his life, he would be a busy world traveler. Ellington appeared in and scored the 1959 film Anatomy of a Murder, and its soundtrack won him three of the newly instituted Grammy Awards, for best performance by a dance band, best musical composition of the year, and best soundtrack. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his next score, Paris Blues (1961).

In August 1963, his stage work My People, a cavalcade of African-American history, was mounted in Chicago as part of the Century of Negro Progress Exposition. Meanwhile, of course, he continued to lead his band in recordings and live performances. He switched from Columbia to Frank Sinatra 's Reprise label (purchased by Warner Bros. Records) and made some pop-oriented records that dismayed his fans but indicated he had not given up on broad commercial aspirations. Nor had he abandoned his artistic aspirations, as the first of his series of sacred concerts, performed at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco on September 16, 1965, indicated. And he still longed for a stage success, turning once again to Broadway with the musical Pousse-Café, which opened on March 18, 1966, but closed within days. Three months later, the Sinatra film Assault on a Queen, with an Ellington score, opened in movie houses around the country. (His final film score, for Change of Mind, appeared in 1969.) Ellington became a Grammy favorite in his later years.

He won a 1966 Grammy for best original jazz composition for "In the Beginning, God," part of his sacred concerts. His 1967 album Far East Suite , inspired by a tour of the Middle and Far East, won the best instrumental jazz performance Grammy that year, and he took home his sixth Grammy in the same category in 1969 for And His Mother Called Him Bill , a tribute to Strayhorn , who had died in 1967. "New Orleans Suite" earned another Grammy in the category in 1971, as did "Togo Brava Suite" in 1972, and the posthumous The Ellington Suites in 1976. Ellington continued to perform regularly until he was overcome by illness in the spring of 1974, succumbing to lung cancer and pneumonia. His death did not end the band, which was taken over by his son Mercer , who led it until his own death in 1996, and then by a grandson.

Meanwhile, Ellington finally enjoyed the stage hit he had always wanted when the revue Sophisticated Ladies, featuring his music, opened on Broadway on March 1, 1981, and ran 767 performances. The many celebrations of the Ellington centenary in 1999 demonstrated that he continued to be regarded as the major composer of jazz. If that seemed something of an anomaly in a musical style that emphasizes spontaneous improvisation over written composition, Ellington was talented enough to overcome the oddity. He wrote primarily for his band, allowing his veteran players room to solo within his compositions, and as a result created a body of work that seemed likely to help jazz enter the academic and institutional realms, which was very much its direction at the end of the 20th century. In that sense, he foreshadowed the future of jazz and could lay claim to being one of its most influential practitioners.

Duke Ellington | About Duke Ellington | American Masters | PBS About Duke Ellington Comments “It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.” Considered one of the greatest jazz composers of all time, Duke Ellington had an enormous impact on the popular music of the late 20th century. Among his more than two thousand songs are such hits as “In A Sentimental Mood,” “Sophisticated Lady,” “I Got It Bad And That Ain’t Good,” and “I’m Beginning To See The Light.” For almost fifty years he toured the world as a band leader and piano player. Today his recordings remain among the most popular jazz of the big-band era. Born in Washington D.C. in 1899, Edward Kennedy Ellington, better known as “Duke,” began playing piano as a child. His mother, who also played the piano, oversaw his education, and by the time he was seventeen he began playing professionally. Making his name as a piano player in Washington, Ellington started to compose his own music. In 1923 he moved to New York, and the following year formed his own band, the Washingtonians.

By 1927, Ellington’s band had found a small base of fans and secured an engagement at Harlem’s famous Cotton Club. This proved to be a major turning point in Ellington’s career, providing him with access to larger audiences through radio and recordings. In 1931 Ellington left the Cotton Club and began a series of extended tours that would continue for the rest of his life. For Ellington, the big band was not simply made up of five reeds, four trumpets, three trombones, drums, a bass, and a piano; it was made up of individuals. Where other composers had concerned themselves with creating a sound that unified the many instruments into one voice, Ellington believed in letting the dissonant voices of each musician play against each other. He wrote music that capitalized on the particular style and skills of his soloists. For this and many other reasons, his soloists often stayed with him for extended periods. Among the best members of his band were Jimmy Blanton, Johnny Hodges, Cootie Williams, and Harry Carney (who was in the band for nearly every one of its forty-seven years).

In 1939, Billy Strayhorn joined the band as an arranger, composer, and sometimes pianist. The two worked well together, continuing in the tradition that Ellington had built. Strayhorn’s contribution to Ellington’s achievements at the time were significant, and even some of their most popular tunes (such as “Take The A Train”) were written by Strayhorn. Though not as well known as much of Ellington’s other work, pieces such as “Jack the Bear,” “Ko-ko,” and “Cotton Tail” (done between 1939 and 1942), had a profound influence on much of the jazz composition and performance that followed. Though Ellington continued to compose and perform regularly throughout the 1940s and 1950s, the public demand for big-band music had faded. It was not until 1956, with a triumphant performance at the Newport Jazz Festival, that Ellington re-emerged as an important voice in contemporary music. For most of his time as a composer and bandleader, Ellington underplayed his role as a pianist.

Throughout the 1950s and early 1960s he began performing with a number of the other great musicians and composers of the time, making albums that included DUKE ELLINGTON AND JOHN COLTRANE (1962), MONEY JUNGLE (1962, with Max Roach and Charles Mingus), and DUKE ELLINGTON MEETS COLEMAN HAWKINS. Among the younger generations, Ellington was both a symbol of the traditional modes of jazz music and the finest example of how to transcend those modes. The beauty and energy of earlier pieces such as “Mood Indigo” remained alive in even the final years of his life. In May of 1974, Ellington died of lung cancer in New York City. In his more than fifty years as a professional musician, Ellington had been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters, awarded a doctor of music degree from Yale University, given the Medal of Freedom, and, most importantly, built the foundations from which much of the best American music consequently grew. What did you think?

Duke Ellington — Free listening, videos, concerts, stats and photos at Last.fm blues Duke Ellington (Edward Kennedy Ellington, April 29, 1899 - May 24, 1974) was an American jazz composer, pianist and bandleader, one of the most influential figures in jazz, if not in all American music. Duke Ellington composed over 3000 songs, including: "It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing", "Sophisticated Lady", "Mood Indigo", “Solitude", "In a Mellotone", and "Satin Doll". Through the ranks of Duke Ellington & His Orchestra passed some of the biggest names in jazz, including… read more Duke Ellington Biography - Childhood, Life Achievements & Timeline Musicians Duke Ellington Biography Duke Ellington was an American jazz composer and performer who is among one of the greatest names in the history of jazz. This biography profiles his childhood, life, music career, achievements and timeline.

Quick Facts Beatrice Ellis, Mercer Kennedy Ellington education 1999 - Grammy Awards forHistorical Album 1979 - Grammy Awards for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance Big Band 1976 - Grammy Awards for Best Jazz Performance By A Big Band 1972 - Grammy Awards for Best Jazz Performance By A Big Band 1971 - Grammy Awards for Best Jazz Performance By A Big Band 1968 - Grammy Awards for Best Instrumental Jazz Performance â Large Group 1967 - Grammy Awards for Best Instrumental Jazz Performance Large Group 1966 - Grammy Awards for Best Original Jazz Composition 1965 - Grammy Awards for Best Instrumental Jazz Performance - 1959 - Grammy Awards for Best Performance By A Dance Band 1959 - Grammy Awards for Best Musical Composition First Recorded 1959 - Grammy Awards Best Sound Track Album â Background Score 1932 - Grammy Hall of Fame for Image Credit Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American jazz pianist, composer, and bandleader. He is regarded as one of the greatest jazz composers and a prolific performer of his time.

Most of his musical works on instruments set standards for others, which were later adapted into songs. This renowned jazz musician exhibited his excellence in film scores and classical compositions too. Considered a very important personality in the history of jazz music, he liked to call his music âAmerican Musicâ instead of jazz. A bandleader, pianist and a composer, Ellington was nicknamed âDukeâ by his childhood friends for his gracious and well-mannered behavior. He was truly a genius in the sense of instrument combinations, arranging jazz and improvising music that made Ellington stand unique among other composers of his time. His reputation as a composer and bandleader is intact even after his death. He collaborated with many others and wrote more than one thousand compositions and many of his extant works became a standard in jazz music. Ellington and his orchestra saw a major career revival after an appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival, Rhode Island, in July 1956. He recorded for most American record companies of his time and performed in several films and composed several stage musicals. With his creative genius, Ellington elevated the perception of jazz to an art form on a par with other traditional musical genres.

Childhood & Early Life Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was born on April 29, 1899, in Washington D.C. His father James Edward Ellington and mother Daisy Kennedy Ellington were pianists. His father played operatic arias while parlor songs were his motherâs first choice. They stayed with his maternal grandparents at 2129 Ida Place which is now called Ward Place, NW in the West End neighborhood of Washington, D.C. When Ellington was 7 years old, he began his piano training. He took lessons for the same from Marietta Clinkscales. His friend Edgar McEntree gave him the nickname of âDukeâ because of his casual and graceful manner and the dapper dress that he wore. He pursued his education from Armstrong Technical High School in Washington, D.C. He was very fond of playing baseball. The first job that he did was of selling peanuts at Washington Senators baseball games. In the summer of 1914, he wrote his first composition "Soda Fountain Rag" that is also known as the "Poodle Dog Rag" while he was working as a soda jerk in Poodle Dog CafÃ©.

He drew inspiration from many piano players namely Phil Wurd, Caroline Thornton, Luckey Roberts, Turner Layton, Gertie Wells, Clarence Bowser, Sticky Mack, Harvey Brooks, Claude Hopkins, Eubie Blake, Doc Perry, Cliff Jackson, Joe Rochester, Lester Dishman, Louis Brown and Blind Johnny. He began listening and imitating ragtime pianists in Washngton D.C and also those who hailed from Atlantic City and Philadelphia. He got private lessons in harmony from Henry Lee Grant, a music teacher at Dunbar High School. With the additional guidance that he received from the pianists in his home town and from band leader Oliver "Doc" Perry, he inculcated a better understanding of the instrument, learned to read music sheets, improved his technique and projected a professional style. In 1916 he opted out of an art scholarship to the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn for the sake of music and he also dropped out of Armstrong Manual Training School, where he was studying commercial art, just three months before his graduation. In 1917 he started working as a freelance sign-painter and simultaneously began his hunt for bringing in together groups that could play for dances.

In 1919 he met Sonny Greer who was a drummer from New Jersey. He started building his music business through sign painting. Whenever someone asked him to make a sign for a dance or party, he enquired if they had arranged for music and offered to play for them. In late 1917s he formed his own group âThe Duke's Serenaders". The very first performance that he gave was at the True Reformer's Hall, from where he earned 75 cents. Ellingtonâs music and his band thrived and played throughout Washington, D.C. and Virginia. He usually played for embassy and private parties. His band included Sonny Greer on drums, his childhood friend Otto Hardwick on alto saxophone, Elmer Snowden on banjo and Arthur Whetsol on trumpet. They performed for both African-American and white audiences which was quite rare in those times. Career When Ellingtonâs drummer Sonny Greer joined the Wilber Sweatman Orchestra in New York City, he decided to leave behind his successful career in Washington, D.C., and moved to Harlem.

After some time the young musicians left the Sweatman Orchestra to form their own, they faced a highly competitive emerging jazz scene that was hard to crack. After some time, the young musicians felt discouraged and returned to Washington, D.C. In June 1923, a gig in Atlantic City, New Jersey, proved lucky for the group and got them a chance to play at the prestigious Exclusive Club in Harlem. Initially, the group was known as âElmer Snowden and his Black Sox Orchestraâ but after some time they renamed themselves âThe Washingtoniansâ. In 1924, Snowden left the group and Ellington became the bandleader. After a fire incident, the club re-opened as the Club Kentucky. By the end of 1924 Ellington made eight records among three of which received composing credit, which included, âChooChooâ. In 1925, he contributed four songs to Chocolate Kiddies starring Lottie Gee and Adelaide Hall, which introduced European audiences to African-American styles and performers. By now Ellingtonâs Kentucky Club Orchestra grew to a group of ten players and they developed their own unique sound.

October 1926 was a turning point in his career when he made a career-advancing agreement with agent-publisher Irving Mills. This agreement with Mills allowed him to record prolifically, which, in turn, brought popular recognition to Ellington. In September 1927, King Oliver's (American jazz cornet player and bandleader) refusal to play as the house band at Harlem's Cotton Club landed the deal in Ellington's favor and weekly radio broadcasts from the club gave Ellington national exposure. From there on he never looked back. He was not a strict disciplinarian and used charm, humor, flattery, and astute psychology to maintain control of his orchestra. With the Great Depression worsening, the recording industry too was hit by the financial crisis and that resulted into dropping of over 90% of artists by the year 1933. In the case of Ellingtonâs Orchestra, radio exposure helped maintain popularity and his orchestra began to tour. Some records of this era include: "Mood Indigo", "Sophisticated Lady", "Solitude", and "In a Sentimental Mood".

In the early 1930s, the band's audience in America was mainly the African-American community but it had a huge following overseas, exemplified by the success of their trip to England and Scotland in 1933 and their 1934 visit to the European mainland. His fame rose higher in the 1940s when he composed some of his masterworks, including "Concerto for Cootie," "Cotton Tail" and "Ko-Ko." Some of Ellingtonâs most popular songs were "It Don't Mean a Thing if It Ain't Got That Swing," "Sophisticated Lady," "Prelude to a Kiss," "Solitude," and "Satin Doll" and many of his popular songs were sung by Ivie Anderson, a favorite female vocalist of Duke's band.

He also wrote many great and popular songs as âSophisticated Lady,â âRocks in My Bed,â and âSatin Dollâ; âDonât Get Around Much Any More,â âPrelude to a Kiss,â âSolitude,â and âI Let a Song Go out of My Heartâ. Ellington's career got a revival after his bandâs performance at the Newport Jazz Festival on July 7, 1956. It returned him to wider prominence and introduced him to a new generation of jazz fans. Ellingtonâs concert at the festival made international news and resulted in an album that would become the best-selling long-playing recording of Ellington's career. In his last decade, Ellington composed three pieces of sacred music â In the Beginning God , Second Sacred Concert, and Third Sacred Concert. After the Second World War, his band often toured Europe and also played in Asia, West Africa, South America and Australia, besides frequently touring North America.

His autobiography âMusic Is My Mistressâ was published in 1973. Ellington received as many as 12 Grammy awards - nine while he was alive. Personal Life & Legacy Ellington married his high school sweetheart Edna Thompson on July 2, 1918 at the age of 19. On March 11, 1919 they were blessed with a baby boy, their first and only child. They named him Mercer Kennedy Ellington. They parted ways in late twenties and in the year 1928 Mildred Dixon became Ellingtonâs companion and managed his company and travelled with him on his tours. In 1938, he left his family and started living with Beatrice "Evie" Ellis, who was a Cotton Club employee. In early 1960s he got close to Fernanda de Castro Monte. Tempo Music was later run by Ellingtonâs sister Ruth and his son played piano and trumpet and formed his own band which he also led. He was also his fatherâs business manager and after his death he controlled the band.

Ellington died on May 24, 1974, due to pneumonia and lung cancer. He was entombed in the Woodlawn Cemetery, The Bronx, New York City. His last words were, "Music is how I live, why I live and how I will be remembered.â After his death, his band was controlled by his son, and they continued to release albums even after his death. âDigital Dukeâ won Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album in 1988 and the credits for the same were given to âThe Duke Ellington Orchestraâ. A number of memorials are dedicated to Ellington in Washington D.C, New York and Los Angeles. Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington D.C provides education to students who aspire to consider career in arts. This school was originally build in 1935 and named the Calvert Street Bridge. It was, however, renamed as Duke Ellington Bridge in 1974. Duke Ellington Building at 2121 Ward Place, NW got a bronze plaque attached to it in 1989.

In 2010, a park was named after him across the street from his birth site named Duke Ellington Park. A coin featuring Ellington was launched on February 24, 2009, in the United States. He became the first American-African to be featured on a circulating coin in the US. The West 106th Street where he lived for years was named as Duke Ellington Boulevard after his death. The prestigious high school bands participate in a well-known annual competition named Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition and Festival. Ellington was listed in the list of 100 Greatest African-American by scholar Molefi Kete Asante in 2002. Translate this page to Spanish, French, Hindi, Portuguese Pictures of Duke Ellington Duke Ellington (1899–1974) Musical notes for school children Duke Ellington (1899–1974) 29th April 1899 in Washington DC, USA. Duke Ellington’s grave in New York Died: 24th May 1974 in New York, New York, USA.

Buried: Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York, New York, USA. Some famous piecess: It Don’t Mean a Thing (If it Ain’t Got That Swing). (See the videos below .) Mood Indigo. Take the ‘A’ Train. (This one was written by Billy Strayhorn.) Plus many more. The Indispensible, Vols 5/6 (1940) and Vols 7/8 (1941). Sophisticated Lady (1941–1946). Such Sweet Thunder (1956–1957). Duke Ellington and John Coltrane (1962). The Far East Suite (Special Mix) (1966). Plus many more! He was one of the greatest jazz artists ever! He wrote and played great jazz for about 50 years! He was one of the greatest jazz artists of the swing era (1930s–early 1940s). [Swing jazz uses big bands and has a strong beat. It is often very fast as well.] His real first name was Edward. He was a piano player. He was a true composer .

Many jazz artists do not actually write much music themselves. Duke Ellington was different. He wrote loads of music! He didn’t just write jazz. He also wrote film music, popular music , religious music, and even some music that could be called classical . He led an orchestra from 1923 until 1974. This orchestra is still going today and is called the Duke Ellington Orchestra. In the later 1950s and 1960s he made recording with many other great jazz artists, such as Ella Fitzgerald , John Coltrane , Count Basie and Louis Armstrong . He was very charming and polite. He was very loyal to the musicians who worked for him. He also wrote his music to make each of his musicians sound as good as they possibly could. Over 12,000 people went to his funeral. His last words were, “Music is how I live, why I live and how I will be remembered.” Official Website Here is a video of Duke Ellington and his orchestra playing several pieces. One of the pieces is It Don’t Mean a Thing (If it Ain’t Got that Swing). This starts at 2.53 on the video.

By the way, Duke Ellington is the one playing the piano. Duke Ellington and his orchestra playing ‘It Don’t Mean a Thing (If it Ain’t Got that Swing)’ and other songs Compare this with a video a modern jazz group playing It Don’t Mean a Thing (If it Ain’t Got that Swing). A modern jazz group playing ‘It Don’t Mean a Thing (If it Ain’t Got that Swing)’ Choose another jazz artist . Picture credits: Duke Ellington. This photograph is of Duke Ellington at the Hurricane Club, New York in May 1943. It was taken by Gordon Parks and is in the public domain. Click here for the source of this image, along with the relevant copyright information. Duke Ellington’s grave in New York. This photograph was taken on 23rd October 2008 by the user Anthony22 on Wikipedia. This image is free to use providing one credits the photographer. Click here for the source of this image, along with the relevant copyright information. Video credits: Duke Ellington and his orchestra. Duke Elington et son orchestre, It Don’t Mean a Thing.

It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing – Mike Flaherty’s Dixieland Direct Jazz Band. Mike Flaherty’s Dixieland Direct Jazz Band live at the Kennedy Center featuring: Henning Hoehne, Bob Boguslaw, Dallas Smith and Mike Flaherty. . There is more information about this one on the video’s YouTube page . { 19 comments… read them below or add one } 1 hey 5th October 2012 thank you this really helped me with my homework :’) x 2 Denayia 30th November 2012 thanks for the help!!!!!!! 🙂 Duke Ellington - The New York Times The New York Times Supported by Duke Ellington News about Duke Ellington, including commentary and archival articles published in The New York Times. More Overview Edward Kennedy “Duke” Ellington was an African-American jazz composer, orchestrator, bandleader and pianist who led one of the greatest jazz bands, wrote more than 1,500 compositions and became one of the 20th century’s greatest musicians.

He used the term “beyond category” as the highest possible praise for others, and the phrase richly applies to Ellington, for he led one of the most singular musical careers in American history and left a brilliant legacy likely to endure for the ages. Washington, D.C. Born in 1899, Ellington grew up in a middle-class African-American neighborhood of Washington, D.C., which during his youth boasted the largest black population of any city in the nation. His parents encouraged him and sought to shield him from the racism rampant in his day. Ellington took piano lessons and began playing the then-popular ragtime music. Early on, he took an aversion to categories and felt that all classes of society could and should mix. Dropping out of high school, he named his first band Duke’s Serenaders. North to Harlem The ambitious young musician moved to New York City in 1923, and after a rough start, began to make a name for himself, especially after landing a job at the Cotton Club, Harlem’s most famous nightspot. By the late 1920s, Ellington was developing a unique sound for his band.

Above all, the sound depended on the distinctive instrumental voices of his musicians. He hired and featured some of the greatest, most individualistic players, including the alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges, the trombonist Joe “Tricky Sam” Nanton and the trumpeter Cootie Williams. Ellington’s compositions combined his musicians’ instrumental voices in innovative ways. Most arrangers for big bands voiced instruments in sections — pitting, for example, the trumpet section against the saxophone section. Ellington voiced his instruments across sections, combining, for instance, the clarinet, trombone and trumpet in an innovative fashion to create the ravishing opening of "Mood Indigo" (1930). As a composer, Ellington developed a personal approach to harmony and instrumental voicing. Unlike most other swing bandleaders, he composed most of his band’s music. Irving Mills, his shrewd manager from 1926 to 1939, recognized Ellington’s genius and relentlessly promoted him, securing live radio broadcasts, recordings and motion picture appearances. 1931-1956 Leaving the Cotton Club in 1931, Ellington embarked on nearly incessant touring for the rest of his life.

He appeared in a number of movie shorts and feature films, including "Cabin in the Sky" (1942) and "Anatomy of a Murder" (1959), for which he also wrote the music. In 1939 he hired a gifted young arranger, Billy Strayhorn, who became his trusted musical collaborator. Together they composed many short and long instrumental works, and Strayhorn contributed dozens of pieces to the Ellington band’s repertory, including "Take the 'A' Train" (1941), which became Ellington’s theme song. 1956-1974 Though the early 1950s saw the Ellington band in an artistic and economic slump, in 1956 Ellington rebounded to national attention with a sensational performance at the Newport Jazz Festival. Henceforth, he would compose, alone or with Strayhorn, an increasing number of suites or extended works, such as a suite on Shakespearean themes, "Such Sweet Thunder" (1956), and "The New Orleans Suite" (1970).

Ellington had made his first tours to Europe in the 1930s, and from the 1950s on, he toured abroad extensively, performing in 65 countries. Sometimes his travels inspired his compositions, as in "The Far East Suite," which he wrote with Strayhorn (1966). Rising Esteem After Ellington’s death in 1974, his star continued to rise. In 1985, the U.S. Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp honoring Ellington. In 1988, the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History acquired his vast archives — roughly 100,000 pages of unpublished music that he and Strayhorn composed for the band, 100,000 pages of other documents and 500 artifacts as well as recordings, films and photographs. The availability of Ellington's collection greatly stimulated interest in him, and by making his music much more available for performance and research, sparked a rising valuation of his legacy. The Smithsonian created a series of stationary and traveling exhibitions about him.

In 1995, Jazz at Lincoln Center established the Essentially Ellington High School Band Contest to stimulate interest in his music among young people. In the United States, PBS broadcast two documentaries about him, and public radio presented several commemorative series during his centennial year, 1999. In 2009, the United States Mint honored Ellington on a quarter -- the first African-American to appear by himself on a circulating U.S. coin. Key Recordings More than 10,000 sound recordings of Ellington were made. Some of his most important include: • "Black and Tan Fantasy" (1927) • "The Mooche" (1928) • "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" (1932) • "Daybreak Express" (1933) Duke Ellington | American musician | Britannica.com American musician Alternative Title: Edward Kennedy Ellington Duke Ellington Ornette Coleman Duke Ellington, byname of Edward Kennedy Ellington (born April 29, 1899, Washington, D.C.

, U.S.—died May 24, 1974, New York , N.Y.), American pianist who was the greatest jazz composer and bandleader. One of the originators of big-band jazz , Ellington led his band for more than half a century, composed thousands of scores, and created one of the most distinctive ensemble sounds in all of Western music . Duke Ellington. Reprinted with permission of DownBeat magazine Ellington grew up in a secure middle-class family in Washington, D.C. His family encouraged his interests in the fine arts, and he began studying piano at age seven. He became engrossed in studying art during his high-school years, and he was awarded, but did not accept, a scholarship to the Pratt Institute , Brooklyn, New York. Inspired by ragtime performers, he began to perform professionally at age 17. Ellington first played in New York City in 1923. Later that year he moved there and, in Broadway nightclubs, led a sextet that grew in time into a 10-piece ensemble.

The singular blues-based melodies; the harsh, vocalized sounds of his trumpeter, Bubber Miley (who used a plunger [“wa-wa”] mute); and the sonorities of the distinctive trombonist Joe (“Tricky Sam”) Nanton (who played muted “growl” sounds) all influenced Ellington’s early “jungle style,” as seen in such masterpieces as “East St. Louis Toodle-oo” (1926) and “Black and Tan Fantasy” (1927). Duke Ellington. AP Extended residencies at the Cotton Club in Harlem (1927–32, 1937–38) stimulated Ellington to enlarge his band to 14 musicians and to expand his compositional scope. He selected his musicians for their expressive individuality, and several members of his ensemble—including trumpeter Cootie Williams (who replaced Miley), cornetist Rex Stewart , trombonist Lawrence Brown, baritone saxophonist Harry Carney , alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges , and clarinetist Barney Bigard—were themselves important jazz artists.

(The most popular of these was Hodges, who rendered ballads with a full, creamy tone and long portamentos.) With these exceptional musicians, who remained with him throughout the 1930s, Ellington made hundreds of recordings, appeared in films and on radio, and toured Europe in 1933 and 1939. The expertise of this ensemble allowed Ellington to break away from the conventions of band-section scoring . Instead, he used new harmonies to blend his musicians’ individual sounds and emphasized congruent sections and a supple ensemble that featured Carney’s full bass-clef sound. He illuminated subtle moods with ingenious combinations of instruments; among the most famous examples is “Mood Indigo” in his 1930 setting for muted trumpet, unmuted trombone, and low-register clarinet. In 1931 Ellington began to create extended works, including such pieces as Creole Rhapsody, Reminiscing in Tempo, and Diminuendo in Blue/Crescendo in Blue. He composed a series of works to highlight the special talents of his soloists.

Williams, for example, demonstrated his versatility in Ellington’s noted miniature concertos “Echoes of Harlem” and “Concerto for Cootie.” Some of Ellington’s numbers—notably “Caravan” and “Perdido” by trombonist Juan Tizol—were cowritten or entirely composed by sidemen. Few of Ellington’s soloists, despite their importance to jazz history, played as effectively in other contexts; no one else, it seemed, could match the inspiration that Ellington provided with his sensitive, masterful settings. Duke Ellington with his band in Hollywood, Calif., 1937. Frank Driggs—Frank Driggs Collection/Hulton Archve/Getty Images Britannica Stories Ringling Bros. Folds Its Tent A high point in Ellington’s career came in the early 1940s, when he composed several masterworks—including the above-mentioned “Concerto for Cootie,” his fast-tempo showpieces “Cotton Tail” and “Ko-Ko,” and the uniquely structured, compressed panoramas “Main Stem” and “Harlem Air Shaft”—in which successions of soloists are accompanied by diverse ensemble colours.

The variety and ingenuity of these works, all conceived for three-minute, 78-rpm records, are extraordinary, as are their unique forms, which range from logically flowing expositions to juxtapositions of line and mood. Tenor saxophonist Ben Webster and bassist Jimmy Blanton , both major jazz artists, were with this classic Ellington band. By then, too, Billy Strayhorn , composer of what would become the band’s theme song, “Take the ‘A’ Train,” had become Ellington’s composing-arranging partner. Music: Fact or Fiction? Not limiting himself to jazz innovation , Ellington also wrote such great popular songs as “Sophisticated Lady,” “Rocks in My Bed,” and “Satin Doll”; in other songs, such as “Don’t Get Around Much Any More,” “Prelude to a Kiss,” “Solitude,” and “I Let a Song Go out of My Heart,” he made wide interval leaps an Ellington trademark. A number of these hits were introduced by Ivy Anderson, who was the band’s female vocalist in the 1930s. During these years Ellington became intrigued with the possibilities of composing jazz within classical forms.

His musical suite Black, Brown and Beige (1943), a portrayal of African-American history, was the first in a series of suites he composed, usually consisting of pieces linked by subject matter. It was followed by, among others, Liberian Suite (1947); A Drum Is a Woman (1956), created for a television production; Such Sweet Thunder (1957), impressions of William Shakespeare’s scenes and characters; a recomposed, reorchestrated version of Nutcracker Suite (1960; after Peter Tchaikovsky); Far East Suite (1964); and Togo Brava Suite (1971). Ellington’s symphonic A Rhapsody of Negro Life was the basis for the film short Symphony in Black (1935), which also features the voice of Billie Holiday (uncredited). Ellington wrote motion-picture scores for The Asphalt Jungle (1950) and Anatomy of a Murder (1959) and composed for the ballet and theatre—including, at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, the show My People (1964), a celebration of African-American life.

In his last decade he composed three pieces of sacred music: In the Beginning God (1965), Second Sacred Concert (1968), and Third Sacred Concert (1973). Britannica Lists & Quizzes Editor Picks: Exploring 10 Types of Basketball Movies Although Ellington’s compositional interests and ambitions changed over the decades, his melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic characteristics were for the most part fixed by the late 1930s, when he was a star of the swing era. The broken, eighth-note melodies and arrhythms of bebop had little impact on him, though on occasion he recorded with musicians who were not band members—not only with other swing-era luminaries such as Louis Armstrong , Ella Fitzgerald , and Coleman Hawkins but also with later bop musicians John Coltrane and Charles Mingus . Ellington’s stylistic qualities were shared by Strayhorn, who increasingly participated in composing and orchestrating music for the Ellington band. During 1939–67 Strayhorn collaborated so closely with Ellington that jazz scholars may never determine how much the gifted deputy influenced or even composed works attributed to Ellington.

The Ellington band toured Europe often after World War II; it also played in Asia (1963–64, 1970), West Africa (1966), South America (1968), and Australia (1970) and frequently toured North America . Despite this grueling schedule, some of Ellington’s musicians stayed with him for decades; Carney, for example, was a band member for 47 years. For the most part, later replacements fit into roles that had been created by their distinguished predecessors; after 1950, for instance, the Webster-influenced Paul Gonsalves filled the band’s solo tenor saxophone role originated by Webster. There were some exceptions to this generalization, such as trumpeter-violinist Ray Nance and high-note trumpet specialist Cat Anderson. Connect with Britannica Facebook Twitter YouTube Instagram Pinterest Not least of the band’s musicians was Ellington himself, a pianist whose style originated in ragtime and the stride piano idiom of James P. Johnson and Willie “The Lion” Smith . He adapted his style for orchestral purposes, accompanying with vivid harmonic colours and, especially in later years, offering swinging solos with angular melodies.

An elegant man, Ellington maintained a regal manner as he led the band and charmed audiences with his suave humour. His career spanned more than half a century—most of the documented history of jazz. He continued to lead the band until shortly before his death in 1974. Ellington’s sense of musical drama and of his players’ special talents and his wide range of moods were rare indeed. His gift of melody and his mastery of sonic textures, rhythms, and compositional forms translated his often subtle, often complex perceptions into a body of music unequaled in jazz history. Charles Ives is perhaps his only rival for the title of the greatest American composer. Ellington’s autobiography, Music Is My Mistress, was published in 1973. More about Duke Ellington

Question: What was the first name of jazz musician Duke Ellington?
Answer: Edward